The Six Cats - Fairytale Version
by Rowena BaronErikandSnapelover
Summary: A curse has turned Haru's true love and friends into cats and only she can break the spell by making six shirts while in total silence for six years. However, when she catches the eye of a prince who wishes to marry her, will she finish the shirts in time to save her friends and herself?


The Six Cats - Fairytale Version

Once there was a king over a small but wealthy kingdom. He was happy as his wife had given him a child, a princess, Haru, but his joy didn't last long as an assassination attempt on the family resulted in the death of his queen. To protect his daughter, The king made a deal with the marquis of a tiny estate deep in the woods that bordered his kingdom, to hide his daughter there and keep her safe. As it so happened, many of his neighbors had the same idea with their children, and soon the King's daughter had many companions.

Of these companions, there were two princes, Baron Von Gikkingen and Lune Felinus, a count's son, Renaldo "Muta" Moon, the daughter of the marquis, Hiromi Takida and two orphaned woodcutter's children, Toto and Yuki Crow. The children were very happy for many years, then the marquis got remarried a beautiful but hawkish woman. But she could not stand the simple, classical beauty of Haru, Hiromi and Yuki, or the handsomeness of Baron, Lune, Toto and Muta. But she was smart enough to bide her time, not wanting to be thrown out, until the marquis died of plague in another kingdom. Then, one night after supper, she went to where all the children except Haru, who had gone straight to bed due to a headache, had gathered. Using a dark book she'd inherited, she cast a spell to turn the children into cats and made them run off into the woods. Then she went to deal with Haru.

When Haru woke in the morning, she was in a clearing in a forest, far from anywhere she knew. The marquis's wife stood before her and told her she was never to attempt to return the to manor or she would be killed and disappeared with out a trace. Haru walked to a village where she sold her fine nightgown and two thirds of her hair for food, traveling clothes, some fabric and thread, then left to try and find her way back to her father's kingdom.

After wandering for many months, going though many villages and towns but getting no closer to her father's kingdom, Haru found a little cottage outside of a village. The door was open and she had heard no one lived there, so she walked in to rest, for the night was fast approaching. At sunset, she heard a noise of cats meowing and turned to the door to see six cats in the yard outside, in colors of black, gray, white, tan and orange, As the sun fully set, the cats turned into her friends and she rushed out to greet them, especially Baron, as the two were in love.

But her joy was short lived, as they explained how the marquis's wife has enchanted them, how they could only turn human on the nights from the first thaw of spring till the first frost of winter and then must head south to warmer country.

"There is only one way to reverse the spell," Baron told her. "You must make six shirts from the fabric of nettles, one shirt each year and for those six years you may not say a word or laugh for that would shatter the magic and we will be cursed into cat shape forever."

This was a hard task, as the process to turn nettles into fiber, and then into fabric was hard and painful, and Haru loved talking to her friends. But there was no one she loved more then Baron and her friends, not even her father. She did not hesitate for a second. "I'll do it," she said.

In the next few months, she gathered the nettles and worked to turn them into fiber for the shirts. Her friends were with her though that summer, caring for her and trying to do their best not to make her break the magic. Thankfully, she was able to smile or she would not have been able to make it though those months. Finally, as the days grew shorter, they came later and later to the cottage and left earlier in the morning till at last, on the dawn after the first frost, they left her, dashing though the trees and underbrush. Haru watched them leave. She cried, but never uttered a word.

Though the winter she kept close to the cottage, only leaving to buy supplies in the nearby village once every two weeks. On a wooden distaff, she spun the fibers into a flax. As the spring equinox approached and the nettle came back out of the ground, she gathered the stalks and waited for the sound of cats in the trees. But Haru's friends did not reappear and she spent the following summers, autumns, winters and springs working in solitude and living off the fish she caught and the vegetables she traded in the town.

Haru was 14 when she started on her task of making the shirts. She was 18 when she started looking for a way to turn the flax into fabric, and opportunity arrived on her half birthday when the prince of the kingdom this village was part of, Machida of Sakurakami, came on a tour of his realm. He saw the mute Haru as she came into town for supplies and was instantly enamored by her beauty, which had increased over the years even in her poor state. Machida asked about her and when he learned she was a mute living alone without protection, he said her would take her to his palace. With no way to refuse, Haru just grabbed her bags of flax and rode off with the prince.

Machida's palace was very different from the marquis castle or the little cottage in the wood. A wall surrounded the city, which rose on a hill with the palace on the top. The palace itself was extravagant, in the building and it's inhabitants. Haru was moved into the women's wing of the castle, which was watched over the wife of the old king. The dowager was a sweet woman, who seemed to understand Haru without words and taught Haru herself how to use a hand loom to weave the flax. In the evenings, when Machida called Haru to him, she tutted at how sad Haru's face looked to be away from it.

Machida was enamored by Haru, even with her silence, and on a spring morning after her 19th birthday, he announced she would be his new bride, as per the law of the land. Haru could not make any notion against it, but was glad that, as custom was, the wedding wouldn't take place for a year. She worked hard on the shirts, staying up nights in some cases, to try and finish them. On her 20th birthday and the day of her wedding, as she dressed she insisted on keeping the shirts with her, no matter how many times her servants tried to take them.

At the church were the wedding was to take place, Haru stood alone in the antechamber of the chapel, the shirts over her arm. She was crying, for he feared she wouldn't be able to save herself or her friends from their fates, when a black cat hopped in the window. Haru quickly threw one of the shirts on him and the cat transformed into Toto. Gesturing quickly, she handed Toto the rest of the shirts just as the music for her to enter the chapel started. She walked down the aisle toward Michida and felt a sadness fall on her as the priest started the ceremony. Just when the priest called for any objections to their marriage, six familiar voices in the back called "I object!"

Everyone turned to see who had said it and Haru was so excited she called out the first thing on her mind, "Baron!", and raced away from the alter. For the objectors were no other then her love and her friends, turned back to human by the shirts. Baron, however, had a cat's head, tail and fur. His shirt had not been finished. Haru, however, didn't care what he looked like and was just happy to have him and the others back. She explained to everyone of the charm that had required her silence and the enchantment of her friends. Haru was then surprised to see her father and the marquis's wife as some of the guests. The wicked woman was arrested and called to be executed for her crimes at a later time, and Haru and Baron were married that very day with her father's blessing and no objection from Machida, who recognized their true love.

So Haru and Baron went to rule her kingdom and even though her husband and children were of strange half-cat shapes, they were loved by all and even years later, they would still visit with King Lune and his Queen Yuki, Marquis Toto and Marchioness Hiromi, and Count Muta, who remained a bachelor. And they all lived happily ever after.

So, I've had this story floating around on my computer for ages, but just never did anything with it, cause I wanted to write a chaptered version and didn't want to spoil it. But I figured since I'm probably not gonna write that fic for ages, then I'll post this and let you guys enjoy this one, especially since I haven't posted in almost a year. Anyway, R&R and I'll hopefully will see you pretty soon with another story.


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